A novel drug, Probuphine, was approved last year by the FDA as the first and only buprenorphine implant to treat opioid dependence. Probuphine implants, placed in the arm, give up to six months of continuous release of a low-dose buprenorphine that helps prevent withdrawal symptoms and cravings.

A new UAB Women's Heart Health Clinic has opened at The Kirklin Clinic to address the concerns of women who face cardiac issues. Directed by UAB Cardiologist Salpy Pamboukian, MD, MSPH, the clinic will evaluate and manage women with an array of cardiac issues, while attending to treatment specifics that are more germane to women.

"The challenge of this is not only building the center, but attracting users across the national community and for them to become aware of what we have to offer," says Marcas Bamman, PhD, director of the new REACT Center and MR3 Network Coordinating Center at UAB.

Every year, approximately 8,500 people die waiting for a new liver because their miracle didn't come in time. There simply aren't enough donor organs to save everyone. Promising research into transplants from living donors and animals may offer hope in the future--but all too many patients just don't have the time to wait.

Synergy Labs has just released new diagnostic software that helps physicians efficiently assess a patient's status in relation to psychological disorders, substance abuse risk, and pain levels. This digital tool, called Clarity, pools results from patient self-assessment tests and lab tests into a single screen to allow physicians an overall view for better evaluating diagnostic and treatment avenues.

The landmark study, National Institutes of Health (NIH) CREST, compares carotid stenting (CAS) and carotid endarterectomy (CEA) for treating carotid stenosis. Investigators are finalizing a report on 10-year comparative outcomes that will be presented at a national stroke meeting in February 2016.

Not so long ago, a diagnosis of ovarian cancer was a virtual death sentence for all but a few lucky women. With the advent of platinum-based chemotherapy, five-year survival rates are now approaching 50 percent. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 90 percent of those diagnosed early are surviving.

Five to ten percent of mild asthmatics will have a reaction to the most common and age-old remedy for inflammation—aspirin. In severe asthma patients, that amount more than doubles, reaching up to 25 percent.

If we could turn back time; if, before the ragged cough developed, before symptoms were recognized too late, if we could detect this lethal killer in its early, much more curable stage, many of the people who will die this year from lung cancer probably would have lived.

This year, more than 40,000 Americans will learn they are dying of a disease they have probably never heard of. It kills as many Americans as breast cancer, and trends indicate it will soon be killing more.

When children are born, the future stretches before them, full of infinite possibilities. Perhaps she will grow up to pilot a mission to Mars, or he will be a marine biologist venturing into unexplored worlds beneath the sea.